


Lemon Eyes, All Mine

by whumphoarder



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Babies, Baby Morgan Stark - Freeform, Colic, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Infant Colic, Nightmares, Parent Tony Stark, Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Sleep Deprivation, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-20
Updated: 2019-11-20
Packaged: 2021-02-13 14:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21495601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whumphoarder/pseuds/whumphoarder
Summary: A sleep-deprived Tony attempts to soothe his colicky baby daughter in the way only an engineer could.
Relationships: Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe) & Tony Stark
Comments: 53
Kudos: 221





	Lemon Eyes, All Mine

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to [xxx-cat-xxx](https://xxx-cat-xxx.tumblr.com/) for beta reading and encouragement!

Tony Stark is no stranger to sleep deprivation. 

Over the years, he’s pulled countless all-nighters for reasons ranging from wild partying, to last-minute company deadlines, to his self-inflicted marathon lab sessions. Even when he does make it to bed at a reasonable hour, it’s not uncommon for insomnia or PTSD-induced nightmares to rob him of what little sleep he would otherwise get. He’s become something of an expert on the topic of staying on one’s feet through a combination of nothing but caffeine and sheer willpower. 

Tony was sure he knew how it felt to be exhausted.

Then Morgan was born.

“Shh… shh… c’mon sweetheart, c’mon,” he pleads, pacing the nursery as he desperately attempts to soothe the wailing two-month-old infant in his arms. It’s currently one o’clock in the morning and Morgan has been crying inconsolably for the last two hours straight. 

Just like she did last night. 

And the night before that. 

And the night before that.

“Tony?” Pepper’s voice croaks. He looks up to see his pajama-clad wife leaning against the doorframe of the nursery’s threshold, dark circles under her eyes. “Does she need to be fed again?”

Tony shakes his head. “Tried giving her a bottle a couple times already—she won’t take it. Diaper’s dry too.”

Pepper gives a tired hum of acknowledgement. Morgan’s nightly bouts of crying never seem to have a discernible reason. They’ve tried countless things to comfort her—swaddling, white noise machines, anti-gas drops, baby swings, midnight car rides—and nothing ever works. The doctors say it’s just colic and there’s nothing much they can do besides wait it out.

“I can take her for a while,” Pepper offers. “You should get some rest.”

“I’m alright,” he declines. “You’ve got meetings in the morning.”

Pepper hesitates, looking equal parts tempted and conflicted. “You sure?”

Tony smiles the smallest bit. “Positive. Go back to sleep, Pep.”

Moving over to them, Pepper plants a kiss first to his forehead, then to Morgan’s before heading back to the bedroom. 

Once she’s gone, Tony sinks down into the cushioned rocking chair with a sigh. 

“Yeah, yeah I know sweetie, life is hard,” he murmurs to the still-sobbing baby in his arms. “It’s one in the morning and your stomach hurts and it’s bumming you out…” He moves his hand to start massaging Morgan’s tiny belly with his fingertips. “It’s bumming me out too, to be honest.”

To his great surprise, Tony sees her little fists start to unclench. “Oh you like that, do you?” he says softly as he continues rubbing gently. “Well, I’ve got good news for you, kid—you’re in an excellent position from a negotiation standpoint. Whatever you want, you’ve got it.”

Slowly, gradually, Morgan’s distressed sobs fade into quiet whimpers as Tony’s fingers massage her belly. His hand starts to cramp after a while, but Morgan is finally settling down so he just switches to the other hand and soldiers on.

“You know, there will come a day when the world won’t stop just because you got a tummy ache,” he informs his daughter. “Eventually, you’ll just have to suck it up and get on with life like the rest of us.”

Sniffling slightly, Morgan raises an arm to rub at her eyes with a tiny fist. Her mouth opens up into a wide, toothless yawn.

“But lucky for you”—Tony yawns back—“that day is not today.”

They continue on like that for the next fifteen minutes until both father and daughter have drifted off to sleep.

**X**

After functioning as his daughter's personal masseur for the next two near-sleepless nights, inspiration strikes. Tony spends most of the following afternoon hard at work in his lab, and when he emerges that evening, his exhaustion is masked by the almost manic energy of new invention.

“I’ve got it, Pep,” he announces as he enters the nursery. “I know how to stop her crying.”

Pepper—who is just zipping the already cranky infant into a pair of footed pajamas—lets her gaze fall to the prototype in her husband’s hand. Her brow furrows. “And this is going to do what exactly?”

“Hopefully, it’s going to buy us more than two consecutive hours of sleep,” Tony replies. “Here, I’ll show you.”

After laying Morgan down in her crib, Tony carefully places his invention—a five-inch round custom-made electronic massage device—on her stomach, holding it snugly in place with a stretchy cloth strap that he wraps all the way around her torso and fastens with velcro. He then presses a button on the front of the device and three specially designed plastic ‘fingertips’ on its underside begin rubbing gentle circles on Morgan’s middle.

Pepper blinks at him. “You made her a robotic tummy-rubber?”

Tony scoffs. “Well, it sounds weird when you put it like _ that,” _ he complains over Morgan’s fussing. “I was gonna name it something a lot cooler.”

“Oh really?” Pepper raises an eyebrow. “Such as?” 

“Well…” Tony racks his sleep-deprived brain for a moment. “How about… uh, Comfort Claw?”

Pepper snorts out a laugh. “Definitely not.”

“Swirling Soother?” Tony tries again.

“Even worse.”

He screws his face up in thought. “...Tiny Tot Tranquilizer?”

Pepper rolls her eyes. “Are you even listening to yourself?”

Tony opens his mouth to retort something about engineering and marketing being separate fields when a sudden realization hits him. He _ can _actually listen to himself. For the first time in weeks, it’s finally quiet.

Pepper seems to notice at the same moment because her gaze immediately falls to the drowsy baby in the crib between them. Her lips spread into a grin.

“Alright.” Pepper agrees, “Comfort Claw it is.”

**X**

Tony’s invention is definitely not a perfect solution—Morgan is still far from sleeping through the night without interruption—but it does significantly shorten the duration of her crying sessions and that’s enough to buy him and Pepper a bit of sanity. The two of them are now averaging four or five hours of sleep a night, which is a remarkable improvement from the two or three they were getting before. 

Unfortunately for Tony, there is one drawback. 

His brain now seems to have just enough energy to get back to torturing him. 

Tony jolts awake gasping, the remnants of a Titan-induced nightmare still playing in the back of his mind. He sits up against the headboard and stares at his trembling hands, half-expecting to see them covered in ash.

“...Tony?” Pepper murmurs, still half-asleep. “What is it?”

“Nothing,” he says tightly. Over the monitor, he hears Morgan whimpering unhappily. Since she’s not fully crying yet, they would usually just let her be, but Tony pulls the covers off anyway. “Gonna check on her.”

“M’kay…” Pepper breathes.

Swinging his shaky legs out of bed, Tony then makes his way down the hall. It’s been weeks since he’s slept long enough to relive that particular trauma and he’s not eager to repeat it. He pushes open the door to the nursery and slips inside.

Morgan is lying in her crib, awake and fussing. The massaging device is humming quietly on her stomach and she’s kicking her legs in the air.

Gently, Tony reaches over the crib’s bar and starts stroking her arm with the pad of his thumb. “‘Sup, kiddo,” he whispers. “How’s your night going?”

She makes some more unhappy noises and Tony huffs out a quiet laugh. “Yeah. Same here.”

Carefully, he undoes the cloth straps of the massager from around Morgan and lifts her up into his arms. “Shh.. Shh… It’s okay,” he soothes. “Daddy’s got you.” 

Sitting down in the rocker, he shifts her around to lay in the crook of his elbow. His fingers move to her stomach and he starts rubbing gentle circles on the surface.

“I know, I know darling,” he murmurs as her whimpers slowly fade away. “Some nights are rough.” He rocks her gently in the chair. “But you know what? We’re gonna make it through.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know your thoughts in the comments <3
> 
> Come and hang out on tumblr if you'd like! My url is [whumphoarder](https://whumphoarder.tumblr.com/)


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